The Wonder of Wetlands

Kyambul Lagoon is not a lagoon in the scientific sense because it is not located along the coast. It is really an oxbow lake, a former river meander, known to Australians as a ‘billabong’. Kyambol Lagoon is in the middle of sugar cane paddocks, but it didn’t always used to be this way.

We were greeted by Caleb* and Harry*, two Aboriginal brothers who are the traditional owners of this place. As young boys they camped along the edge of the lagoon with their parents and grandmother. Back then, the lagoon was surrounded by tropical lowland forest. They camped in humpies, semi-circle tents made out of bark, and enjoyed swimming and tasty bush tucker including numerous barramundi which they caught from the clear lagoon water.

Caleb is the oldest child in his family and his mother gave birth to him along the shore of the lagoon. The remaining four children were all born in hospitals – a sign of the changing times and the influence of European culture. Miraculously, despite church missions and events such as the stolen generations, when Aboriginal children were often forcibly removed from their parents by the Australian government, Caleb and Harry grew up alongside their parents and their family remains closely connected to the land. They lived at the edge of the lowland rainforest where the upland rainforest meets the lowland. This is a good spot to live as the lowland rainforest and interspersed paperbark swamp is flooded during the wet season with several meters of water.

Kyambul Lagoon is only accessible during the dry season, once the flood waters recede. The floodplains used to have numerous lagoons, but around the 1950’s the floodplain was cleared for cattle grazing and lagoons were filled in. Caleb recalled that the day when the forest was cleared near the lagoon made his father quite sad and distraught. It happened with no warning and the large trees were toppled and cut up one by one. He watched his country, his soul, being ripped apart and knew that it would never be the same again. Caleb and Harry’s father ran home crying and explained the pain and anguish to his family. At first they couldn’t comprehend what was happening and since they were young children, they didn’t realize the full implications of clearing the land. As Caleb and Harry grew up, more land was cleared and one day they raced to the lagoon to ensure that the heavy machinery did not destroy the grave sites of their grandmother and other family members.

We were impressed that Caleb and Harry swam in the lagoon even though crocs were present. In the past only one croc called the lagoon home. But now that other lagoons in the area have been ploughed over, several crocs have crowded into Kyambul. It turns out you can swim in a lagoon with crocs as long as you stay in the very shallow areas. Caleb also shared with us the technique his father used for hunting crocs. Several men in the community are needed to hunt a big croc. First the men find a nice big ‘wait-a-while’ palm and gather the long tendril embedded with thorns. This plant is so named because if the thorns snag your skin or clothing as you walk near the palm then you will have to wait a while to extract yourself. For similar reasons, this plant is also known as the lawyer vine. Somehow the Aboriginal men held the long tendril in such a way as to not get stuck by the thorns. Then one of them was elected to dive to the spot where the croc was hiding in order to wrap the tendril around the croc’s jaw. Once the tendril was looped around then man would give it a tug and the group on shore would pull the loop shut and wrestle the croc to the surface.

Aboriginal people would control crocodile numbers in other ways as well. Each time female crocs would lay a nest of eggs they would take all but one of the eggs. What we wanted to know was how they distracted a protective mother croc! Croc numbers in the area really plummeted once Europeans began to hunt them, but recently the numbers have rebounded since a no hunting law has been put in place.

Kyambul Lagoon today has water that is milky blue in appearance due to suspended sediments. Several sediment taps have helped to improve water quality by catching fine grain sediments that run off the cane fields during the wet season. In recent years cooperative work among the local land council, traditional owners, and Conservation Volunteers Australia has really improved the lagoon. Rainforest trees have been planted around the lagoon and act as a buffer and help to revitalize the native vegetation that has been displaced by paragrass – a weed planted for cattle grazing that has spread into wetlands and choked water movement. Over a dozen native fish species are present in the lagoon, which is pretty miraculous considering it’s an island surrounded by sugar cane.

The next wetland we visited was one constructed by Richard*, a very forward-thinking farmer, in order to filter water from his cane paddock. Richard has constructed about five wetlands on his property and has helped to finance the construction of several wetlands on his neighbors’ properties – all to ensure good fishing in the surrounding creeks and rivers. An untouched part of his property, which consists of lowland rainforest and paperbark swamp, has been set aside for conservation and he has planted countless trees as riparian vegetation along the numerous creeks which run though his property. It’s really thrilling to know that people are willing to undertake conservation activities on their private property and to see that they have a pronounced affect on water quality and biodiversity.

Of course, it’s not always easy being ‘green.’ Richard faced a lot of opposition and some neighbors thought he was crazy when he constructed his first wetland 20 years ago. But then when they saw how nice it looked with vegetation around the edges and a roosting island for birds in the center, everyone wanted one!

We visited one final land owner, Bill*, who is also a cane farmer. Land Care Australia contacted him about the wetlands on his property and asked him how they could best provide assistance in conserving them, as they are very high value wetlands and form part of the larger Eubenangee Swamp system. In working collaboratively with farmers, Landcare has found ways of reducing fertilizer applications to the fields and thus preventing eutrophication of surrounding wetlands. Otherwise excessive nutrients cause algal blooms which strip wetland waters of oxygen, resulting in fish kills. Riparian tree planting has been incorporated with other routine farm activities so that conservation measure which prevent the erosion of creeks banks are not an inconvenience.

By the time we wrapped up at Bill’s farm the light drizzle had turned to rain, but we were determined to visit Eubenengee Swamp National Park located just down the road. The rainforest portion of the park had been hit quite hard by Cyclone Larry, still it was impressive to see. We were quite in awe of a tree with whitish-yellow spongy bark . At the end of the rainforest we came to a grassy hill forming a lookout point. As we climbed up, the view was spectacular. It’s an entire swamp complex with open water interspersed with sedges and large stands of paperbark for as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately it’s been invaded with an aquatic weed, hymenachne, which reduces the dissolved oxygen present in the swamp water. This plant is very difficult to remove and additional seeds are always supplied by the rivers flowing into the swamp. In some locations the Queensland government has been successful in using a combination of mechanical harvesters, smaller boats, and salt spray to kill and loosen up the tangle of plants.

J and I were completely drenched by the rain at this point and hiked back down to the waiting bus. My head was spinning, not because I was cold and wet, but because it was uplifting and inspiring to hear several environmental success stories…and it was touching to meet the owners first hand. Too often in university settings we talk about including land owners as part of the solution, but don’t often have the opportunity to put abstract concepts into practice.

*Note: Names have been changed to provide anonymity.